Adani Foundation Initiative: Empowering The Women of Rajasthan Through Sustainable Livelihood

It’s an Adani gift to Rajasthan women on International Women’s Day 2023. Adani Foundation has been trying to make the golden dream of social and economic empowerment of women come true by providing training, material, and technical support to the rural women of the country.

In an era where the voices and experiences of rural women around the world need to be amplified, today the need to create new opportunities for rural women is paramount. Adani foundation finds it imperative to do something in this direction so that no rural women should face any hindrance in their progress.

Keeping these things in mind, at the right time, Adani Foundation has gone ahead and taken the responsibility of many works for sustainable livelihood generation, development and progress for every section of the society. The Foundation has expanded the scope of economic opportunities for women by empowering their lives through a community-based approach in rural areas.

Sustainable livelihood through gainful livelihood opportunities

Adani Foundation strives to make women self-reliant and provide them sustainable livelihood through gainful livelihood opportunities. More than 2,700 women from across India are involved in 275 Self Help Groups (SHGs) responsible for activities like running dairies, and canteens, making snacks, grinding spices, mushroom cultivation, etc. The SHGs have earned a total of Rs 20 crore revenue so far.

Adani Foundation is helping many women from minority communities who are from rural areas and who are self-reliant and are self-dependent today. One of the shining examples of those women is Shahnaz Bano. Shahnaz from Kherli, the base village in Atru tehsil of Baran district, Rajasthan, has become part of a livelihood development camp organized in the area by the Adani Foundation. Here she successfully learned how the foundation was planning to empower women in the dairy business in various ways, as there was no milk collection center in that village.

Shahnaz story of success

Shahnaz says, “Earlier people did not even know what to do with the extra milk they got from their cows, due to which people thought that animal husbandry could not be of any use. Then when the foundation formed Hadauti Progressive Producer Company Limited, I joined it as a board member because I was interested in this field. Belonging to a Muslim minority community.  Women never used to go outside their homes for work, but I brought about a change in this mindset and 33 women from the community became part of the FPO.”

‘I have made a difference in the lives of women in my community’

In August 2022, Shahnaz and her team started a milk collection center in their village and gradually more women became part of this mission and now the business is making great progress.  Shahnaz proudly says, “Our village collects 180 liters of milk daily, earning an income of Rs. 2 lakhs every month. Today I can say that I have made a difference in the lives of not only myself but many women in my community.” Have brought.

Success story of Sajnabai Meena

Empowering the people and providing them a means of livelihood so that they can become prosperous and progress; Sajnabai Meena of Amapura village in Baran has benefited from such efforts of the Foundation. With the help of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and skill development training, today Sajnabai is a confident woman who is an inspiration to many women in her village. With the help of SHGs, both their life and livelihood have improved and they have become socially and economically empowered.

Formers are unaware of the use of their land

There are many such cases that the farmer has land, but he does not know what to do with it and how to earn from it and live on it. This was also a problem that the Foundation has solved. Take the case of Sajnabai, for example, who has a farm of 10 bighas (about 2.75 acres), but after the sudden death of her husband, when the responsibility of the farm fell upon her, she did not know anything about farming. Then the foundation team helped her and gave a new direction to her life and encouraged her to take up gardening and grow vegetables in her farm.

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Started with 70 saplings 

Sajnabai says, “Initially the foundation helped me by giving me 70 saplings as well as better quality seeds to grow vegetables. Today I earn 12,000 to 15,000 rupees a month and this is just the beginning. Soon I will start earning 20,000 to 30,000 rupees from my garden. This positive change has made life better for me and my 6 children. Today I consider myself a confident entrepreneur who is no longer afraid to take risks in life. I am thankful to Adani Foundation which helped me to overcome my bad times.”